Seattle Rueda

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As Barbara mentioned in practice last week you are all welcome to come to my house before practice to watch rudea, cuban music, cuban and/or salsa dance videos. I have a small 52″ LCD flat screen and some videos. Feel free to bring your own of send me a link if your favorites are on U-tube. My laptop connects to the flat screen.

Do bring popcorn or a snack and something to drink. Diet pop, juice, wine or beer if you want.

The details

When:           Sunday January 18th, 2009

                    2:00 – 4:15PM

Where:          714 N 64^th Street     

                   Seattle, WA 98103

                   Between Linden and Fremont Avenues on the Phinney side of Green Lake

                   206-781-2184

Eddie A

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CANCILLED AS THE CLUB WAS CLOSED BY SFD YESTERDAY

PLEASE PASS THIS ON

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We will be playing Sat night at Crossroads Bellevue (8th and 156th)- nice stage area and room to dance!

7:30-10:00 PM

Sat Jan 10

Come out for some warm, sunny music.

Ann-ita

CocoLoco

Also- on Sunday, Jan 18th, I will be playing at Serafina restaurant with Tobi Stone – 6:30-9:00.

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Dennis’ Saturday casino class is cancelled for this Saturday. Classes will resume as usual next Saturday the 17th.

Dennis

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Hello Rueda, good news: we have a new date (in place of the Dec. 19 event that was postponed due to weather). Please mark your calendars for March 20, 2009 (Vernal Equinox!) at the D.A.R. in Capitol Hill. I will post again as soon as tickets become available. Thanks for your support, and your patience.

In the meantime, I hope you all can make it to our performance at Suyama Space on January 30. It’s going to be a very beautiful evening, and the concert will take place in the gallery in the midst of a new site-specific installation by sculptor Kendall Buster ( www.kendallbuster.com ).

tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/52247

details at www.charangadanzon.com/events.htm

Happy New Year!

Irene Mitri, violinist / director, Charanga Danzón

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Unbelievable.  Cuban bands are coming back to the US for tours (perhaps the start of a new era in US-Cuban relations, finally change to believe in).  And the first is the 15-piece big band, the Afro Cuban All Stars.  Some of the Cuban musicians are coming in from all over the world, but most are coming straight from the island, hopefully with the sonero Felix Baloy.

Afro-Cuban All Stars Line-Up for 2009 USA Tour
As its name implies, the Juan de Marcos and Afro-Cuban All Stars is more of a project than a band. Like an expert chef, Juan de Marcos changes ingredients with the seasons and the dinner guests. “This band will sound and even behave exactly like one coming straight from Havana,” says de Marcos with a laugh. “Cubans never change and if you’ve been in Miami you’d know what I mean; dominos, mojitos, pork, chicharrónes, and all!” The plat du jour for the 2009 tour includes the following band members culled from the cream of the Cuban diaspora around the globe:

• Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera (Minnesota), pianist and ex-musical director of Tropicana Orchestra and Cubanismo
• Calixto Oviedo (Stockholm), drummer, performed with Adalberto Alvarez, NG La Banda, Pacho Alonso, etc.
• Yaure Muniz (Madrid), Igort Rivas (Curacao) & Miguel Valdes (Vancouver), trumpeters, members of the Buena Vista Social Club, but also lead trumpet players with Paulo FG, Klimax, Tropicana Orchestra, etc.
• Alberto “Molote” Martinez (Amsterdam), trombonist, member of the original line up of Buena Vista Social Club, but also a featured member of Elio Reve’s Orchestra, Cuban Symphonic Orchestra, etc.

Tour Dates and Locations:
02/17/2009, Tacoma, WA, Broadway Center for the Performing Arts
02/18/2009, Olympia, WA, Washington Center for the Performing Arts
02/19/2009, Longview, WA Rose Theatre
02/20/2009, Eugene, OR, Hult Center for Performing Arts
02/22/2009, Arcata, CA, Arcata Theater
02/24/2009, Chico, CA, Cal State University/Chico
02/25/2009, Berkeley, CA, UC / Berkeley
02/26/2009, Berkeley, CA, UC / Berkeley
02/26/2009, Davis, CA, UC/Davis
02/27/2009, Cerritos, CA, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts
02/28/2009, Santa Barbara, CA, UC / Santa Barbara
03/02/2009, Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona
03/03/2009, Mesa, AZ, Mesa Center for the Performing Arts
03/06/2009, Austin, TX, Paramount Theatre
03/07/2009, Dallas, TX, Titas
03/10/2009, Iowa City, IA, West High School
03/13/2009, Madison, WI, Overture Center for the Arts
03/14/2009, Grand Rapids, MN, Myles Reif Performing Arts Center
03/15/2009, Minneapolis, MN, Orchestra Hall
03/18/2009, Urbana, IL, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
03/20/2009, University, IL, Governers State University – Center
03/21/2009, Toledo, OH, Valentine Theatre
03/22/2009, Cincinnati, OH, Aronoff Center / Procter & Gamble
03/24/2009, Oxford, OH, Miami University – Hall Auditorium
03/26/2009, Trenton, NJ, War Memorial Patriots Theatre
03/27/2009, Greenvale, NY, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
03/28/2009, New York, NY, Town Hall Theatre
03/29/2009, New Bedford, MA, Zeiterion Theatre
03/31/2009, North Bethesda, MD, The Music Center at Strathmore
04/01/2009, Charlottesville, VA, Paramount Theatre
04/02/2009, Hampton, VA, American Theatre
04/03/2009, Greensboro, NC, Carolina Theatre
04/04/2009, Atlanta, GA, Variety Playhouse
04/07/2009, Ft. Pierce, FL, Sunrise Theatre
04/08/2009, Ft. Pierce, FL, Sunrise Theatre
04/08/2009, West Palm Beach, FL, Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Arts
04/09/2009, Tampa FL, Ferguson Hall
04/11/2009, Miami, FL, Knight Concert Hall

Absolutely Live CD/DVD Exclusively Available During Tour
A combination CD/DVD titled Absolutely Live on Juan de Marcos’s DM Ahora! Records (London) and GG & LL Records (Mexico) will be available exclusively during this tour at concerts and at select online retailers. The package includes DVD footage of a concert at Tokyo’s Zepp, and CD audio and DVD of a previously unreleased concert at The Staaten Hall during The Hague’s North Sea Jazz Festival.

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I just discovered that for the last few months on Youtube, Pisicore, has been posting clips of Cuban Bands appearing on TV during the 70s and 80s. These clips are a gold mine and I’m giddy at what I’ve found:
1. Los Van Van in the studio in 1973 rehearsing and recording their funk-songo A Ver Que Sale, with some b-roll footage of dancers.
2. Los Van Van performing El Baile del Buey Consado (1981) with a crazy dancing mop-top white guy.
3. Maravilla de Florida performing Tu pastilla soy yo (1991) with Manolito on piano; despite the bad sound, there is a lot of great dancing here.
4. Orquesta Neoson, a band I had never heard of gritan “¡tremenda timba!” (1983) with some dancing in the background.
5. La Ritmo Oriental performs Dicen que sufro (1983) with dancing to a fast song. But to really get of sense of how incredible this group is, check out El Son de Claro (1982)–the bloques go through a time warp brought back by the lead vocalist; it’s sublime, and I highly recommend Kevin Moore’s article about them on timba.com, with sound clips of this (sadly) hard to find under appreciated group. David Calzado is one of the violinists.
6. Check out these gringo-style (!?) Cubans doing Rueda in 1981 to Oscar d’Leon. But they are having so much fun, it’s inspiring to see so much fun at such an introductory level, plus there are some cool simple moves.

And there are so many more on Pisicore’s Channel!

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Come out for live music and dancing with Picoso at Nectar Lounge this Friday, 1/9.  I’ll be spinning before and in between sets with Timaba, Salsa, Merengue, Reggaeton, Dancehall, Reggae, and anthing that sounds good for dancing.

nectarlounge.com or picoso.net

 412 N 36th St
Seattle, WA 98103

Starts 9pm, $8

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